I started reading the Spenser detective series over 20 years ago. I think I discovered it at the Mystery Lover’s Bookshop in Oakmont, PA. After reading a few of his books, I was hooked. I wasn’t expecting this because I remembered watching the “Spenser for Hire” TV show from the ’70s and not liking it.
The books were a different matter entirely. I was drawn to the characters – especially to Spenser, with his masculine, tough, competent and literate moral code. I was drawn to the friendships he developed and these relationships that carried through the series with his girlfriend, his #1 partner, his criminal freinds and his cop friends.
I loved the detailed descriptions of cooking meals, drinking, dining out, honor, sacrifice and duty.
Parker’s love for Boston made me fall in love with Boston and want to move there many times. I might have actually done this too, if it wasn’t for the brutal winters and the unaffordable real estate.
Parker died in 2010 but his series has continued with books written by a number of different authors. They all remain true to original series, even if they aren’t quite the same.
This week, I discovered a new one from 2023 that I hadn’t yet read. I picked it up from the library two days ago and expect to finish it tonight.
There are a few changes.
Spenser has gotten older and the current author (who is 72 himself) makes note of this throughout the book. He talks about the different characters getting grayer with more laugh lines, Spenser dealing with achy knees and a less indestructible body, character who entered the series as teens who are now full fledged adults and the deaths of some old mainstays from books past.
I feel like I grew old with Spenser – because I have.
As I am reading this current novel, I feel calm and warm and at peace. It’s feels like curling up under a warm blanket on the sofa in the winter beside my wife while we both read books or watched a movie or drank wine and talked about our days- like we used to do so many years ago.
That’s a great feeling.
*Boston still sounds fantastic. I even did a Zillow search to check out home prices. It’s way too expensive for me. That’s a good thing, since I don’t want to move anyway. I just enjoy sinking into my memories and having that feeling of curling up with a good book